Moonshine and Spirits
by An Preson Peepul
Summary: After her exciting adventures on Earth, Hat Kid has finally returned home. She believed that her business on Earth was finished for good, only to find a stowaway hiding in the engine room.
1. Home Sweet Home

So the Moonjumper seems to be a very popular character in this fandom, despite not actually being part of the finished package. Everyone seems to have different ideas of how he's supposed to be like, and after reading a bunch of stories about him, I just wanted to throw my own oversized top hat into the ring with the lions and see if it gets ripped to shreds.

(I own lots of things that I don't really use, but I don't own A Hat in Time. I've played the game, I just didn't make it)

* * *

Hat Kid skipped down the street, a carefree smile on her face. After a whole hour of being locked in a stuffy room, listening to a bunch of old people yap on about this and that, she was all too ready to get back home and sleep the rest of the day away.

Planetary travel was a common pursuit on Hat Kid's homeworld. Heck, all the people she knew was involved with it in one way or another. Overseeing all of the travels was a huge corporation that held stock of the time pieces. Its every action was controlled by a select council that sat at the very top, and apparently accidentally losing the time pieces was a big no-no for them.

Hat Kid had been called to meet the council for having her time pieces stolen by a certain hatless, moustached, hood-wearing, statue-posing, ticket-giving individual. From the small bits she could recall from the meeting, they might just take all of her cushions and pillows away from her, send her on a nice trip, send her on a nice fall, or send her a tiny white elephant to take care of, a punishment they took from another planet. (Though they seemed to lack knowledge as to how it was supposed to work) The list went on for a really long time, but Hat Kid didn't pay much attention to what was on it.

The one punishment that really caught her attention, however, was that she just might be barred from space travel. Hat Kid didn't think that they would give that one to her, though; it wasn't her fault that the time pieces had ended up being used to create an alternate universe. Surely they would have ten billion more penalties that wouldn't involve taking away her right to travel.

Then she reached the shipyard, where her ship was waiting patiently for her, and she decided that such grim matters could wait to be thought about, for she had more important matters attend to. Like her empty stomach, for example.

Darkness was all that welcomed her home. With a flick of her hand, lights flickered and went ablaze. Hat Kid stepped back onto the plush carpet that coated the wooden floor of her spaceship, and her feet sunk in as if the carpet was cuddling her feet. She was finally back on home soil after her little misadventure on Earth, yet her spaceship still felt more like home than her planet of origin. She may have been raised on a icy rock over a never-ending sea, but her heart belonged to the stars. (Bleh. The mushy kind of stuff never sat well with her)

Hat Kid waded through the carpet, deeper into the empty central room. She lamented how her spaceship always felt empty after she had gotten so used to having all those foreign artifacts around, but being the law-abiding citizen that she was, Hat Kid had turned all of them in to be stored somewhere else. Well, almost all of them.

The strangely shaped cushion sat in the corner, shying away from the lights that glared down below. It was strange that she felt so sentimental for the first artifact she had recovered from that big blue planet, but she had seen stranger in the past few days.

The first room she headed to was the kitchen. Her fridge only contained food that tasted good when cold, since she did not have any way to heat up food in a pinch, (if only she had some sort of microwave oven, like the one she used to punish the bad food whenever she felt like playing with her meals)

Hat Kid reached inside to grab a cookie, and as she snaked it past rows of assorted food, she couldn't help but feel as if something was off. When she bit into the cookie, she realized what it was; the fridge wasn't cold. Her brow furrowed, and she gave the fridge a good hit, causing it to emit a rattling sound. She stuck a hand inside, but she couldn't feel any difference. Hat Kid debated on whether she should investigate this strange occurrence, but eventually decided that sleeping was more important.

Hat Kid left the kitchen re-energized- with just enough energy to finish the cookie in her hand and get back to bed. She leapt over the edge, down to the floor below, when the lights went out. In the darkness, Hat Kid couldn't see where she was going, and landed face-first onto the carpet. As she slowly picked herself back up, the lights turned on again, as if someone was playing tricks on her. Slightly angry, Hat Kid glanced around the room, as if to look for ghosts, (actually, she was looking for ghosts. Turning your lights on and off so you would run into the floor seems like a very ghost-y thing to do) out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the sign next to the machine room appeared a bit wonky.

Someone had broken in to her ship. More cautious now, Hat Kid slowly advanced on the door, half-eaten cookie in hand. Crumbs fell to the floor, before they were quickly swallowed up by the carpet, and Hat Kid began to wonder why she hadn't finished the cookie in the kitchen. She had no time to dwell on that thought, however; she had to finish looking at the machine room first.

Slowly, Hat Kid entered the machine room. Nothing looked out of place; everything was in order. The machines were running normally, the computer was still making the funny beeping noises that it always did. Usually, the carpet was so thick that anyone who had stepped on it would leave footprints, but the floor was still squeaky clean.

Then, her eyes fell on the power generator, and she managed to catch sight of a disheveled rag, draped across the machine.


	2. An Alien Visitor

Ha! Did you fools really think I was going to go for long without updating this story?

Because that was what I was actually going to do. I just had two more chapters hidden away. I only put them out now because... I was supposed to be waiting for something, but I forgot what it was. It probably wasn't that important.

This chapter's shorter than I would have liked, but I couldn't find a way to cram more stuff in there without breaking how it's carefully split into chapters.

I don't own a hat in time, but I do have a fedora. (At least, I think it's a fedora)

* * *

When Moonjumper awoke, he found himself wrapped in a thick blanket. The first thing he noticed after that was someone had moved him. Through his hollow eyes, he could see that this room was much bigger than the one before. From how spacious it was, Moonjumper guessed that whoever's ship he was on, they were a very organized person. He would have craned his neck to look for more, but at the moment he was currently unable to do so.

Through the floor, he could feel someone approaching him. He attempted to turn his eyes as far as he could to see whoever was passing by, but he was only able to catch a glimpse of a small boot just as if disappeared from the corner of his vision. Whoever it was probably didn't even know he was awake, and he had no means to alert them because of his cursed frozen body. It had been so long since he had been able to interact with anybody at all, being banished to the moon and all, but now that he finally had the chance to talk to someone else, he was unable to do anything because his soul was stuck on the other side of the universe. It was almost as if his past sins were still taunting him, persisting decades after he had committed them.

A small breeze swept under the thick covers, and Moonjumper shivered from its touch; while to anyone else it might have been nothing more than a soft nudge, to his fragile body, it felt like someone had slammed a block of ice into his side. For a moment he wished that he could pull his covers tighter over himself before he fell back into his icy cold, dreamless slumber.

* * *

The strange rag guy hadn't moved an inch since Hat Kid had moved him from the machine room. She had set her ship on course back to Earth, as since it was the last planet she had visited, so the alien was probably from there.

As the ship gently tossed around the star-studded black void, Hat Kid quickly checked on her visitor again. Under the thick blanket, it looked fine, but when Hat Kid peered closer, she could see that it was still shivering. She hopped out of her chair and scurried over, taking a moment to press her hand against its forehead. The mask felt ice cold to her touch, and she quickly stepped away as to not linger on its hollow eyes, which she found to be a bit unsettling.

Hat Kid looked around the room for something to warm up the alien. Her mind sifted through various ideas, before her eyes landed on her time piece vault. She had restocked on time pieces before she left, so her vault was filled to the brim. Surely it couldn't hurt to just take out one for a while?

Time pieces, if stable, can be shaken to produce heat. This happens because the dust inside doesn't like to be moved so they flip out or something like that, along with a bunch of other factors that Hat Kid didn't really care enough about to have paid attention when she was reading the manual. In a mad dash, Hat Kid grabbed a time piece from the vault and a pillow from her bedroom. She carefully slid the pillow under what she guessed was the alien rag thing's head, making sure not to break anything, before she shook the time piece with her tiny hands and slid it next to the pillow. Satisfied with her handiwork, Hat Kid skipped off to go check up on the rest of the ship. She stopped at the door and turned back to the visitor. She looked it over one more time, and when she noticed that a creepy smile had found its way onto its face, she decided that she had better things to do. As she turned away, she missed the slight twitch in the thing's fingers from underneath the blanket.


	3. Making Contact

The first thing Moonjumper did when he regained control of his fingers was to fully close the blanket over himself. He tapped his fingers against the soft carpet, quietly relishing the feeling of the controls to his body slowly being returned to him. A shame he did not have control over his neck; something over his head was radiating warmth onto him, and it frustrated Moonjumper that he could not crane his neck to see what it was.

So he just lay there. So alone. So quiet. So sorrowful. Then something brushed against his side, and he was just able to catch something purple scoot out of view. A simple desire to touch something consumed his mind in a heartbeat. How long has it been since he had felt anything beneath his hand aside from moon dust? Twenty years? Thirty years? He'd lost track. Time was like a fleeting emotion on the heartless surface of the moon; something he knew existed, but could never pin down. Sometimes the sun would give him a passing glance, but even it thought that he was unworthy of the wretched life he had been given, for, more often than not, it would just turn its back to him and slip back over the horizon.

Putting all his energy into his fingers, he tried to pull his hand out from underneath the covers, in the hope that he could grab onto whatever it was that had just passed him. As soon as the blanket parted to the slightest degree, a tinge of coldness swept through the crack, like slivers of liquid silver burning into his paper-thin skin, and he regretted his hasty decision. He quickly pulled his fingers back under the blanket and sealed the opening. So much for that.

Then, he found himself staring into darkness. Upon taking a moment to let his eyes adjust, he found that someone was just casting a shadow over him.

* * *

Hat Kid stared at its face. The face stared back. They kept looking at each other for the longest time. Eventually, it came to a point where Hat Kid began to wonder if it could speak. Another minute had to pass before she decided that she would be waiting for a really long time if she wanted the rag thing to start, so she just tapped it on its forehead.

...

The rag thing stayed silent. Hat Kid's shoulders slumped, and she frowned in disappointment. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a movement on the edge of the blanket. It didn't take a genius to figure out what it was trying to do.

Her face instantly lit up, and an idea came to her. She dashed away, leaving the rag alien very alone and very sad. A second passed, and Hat Kid returned, bubbling over with excitement as she held up a completely ordinary block of wood in her hands. Energetically, she drummed the wood with her fingers, throwing many glances at the rag thing as if to make sure it was paying attention to what she wanted it to do with the block of wood.

Moving cautiously, she slid the block of wood under the blanket and sat down in front of the raggedy alien with her hands pressed together on her lap. Nothing happened. Hat Kid gave the rag thing a confused glance. Then, the sound of muffled wooden tapping reached her ears, and she dropped her look. The alien seemed to enjoy the sound, as a steady beat filled the air.

Hat Kid clapped joyfully, proud at herself for being able to establish a way to communicate. She got up and sprinted back into her room. Pulling up to her desk, she snatched a piece of paper out from a nearby drawer, and hastily scrawled something on it with a nearby pen. She gave her writing a once-over, and, satisfied with her handiwork, scrambled back into the main room.

When Hat Kid slipped out of her bedroom door, her ears were greeted with a beat that had sounded a bit more... musical than before. She was tempted to stay back and enjoy the tuneless song for a bit longer, but more important matters decreed that she had to interrupt.

Hat Kid slid back in front of the rag alien and shoved the piece of paper into its face. The tapping stopped as she assumed it was taking one good look at the sheet of paper in front of him reading: No = 1, Yes = 2.

Tap tap.

Hat Kid gave the alien an encouraging cheer, internally relieved that the alien understood English. She took her eyes off it for a moment to pull out a pen from a pocket on her clothing, and doodle a picture of Earth on the back of the sheet. Then, she flipped over the piece of paper and revealed her rushed drawing to the alien. A long second went by before it responded.

Tap tap.

Once again, Hat Kid clapped excitedly. She ran off to find something else, (perhaps a code they could use to bring their conversation to a higher level of detail) when the tapping started up again. She stopped to listen, only to realize that it wasn't playing a beat, but rather sounding out some sort of code.

Turning back to look at the rag alien, she went to the ship's controls. Underneath the table was a book labeled "All kinds of codes :)". (She'd put in the smiley face herself. That boring title was just begging for a smiley face at the end to make it a bit more fun) She pulled it out and searched through all the various codes that included some kind of tapping. Being someone known for her boundless energy, Hat Kid was never good at sitting still, so she had taught herself to read through things quickly so she wouldn't have to stay seated for a long period of time.

Most of the codes listed in the book translated the alien's string of tapping as gibberish, and with each useless page she skimmed through, her patience began to wear down. Then, near the end, she came across a particular bit that caught her interest.

"S... O... S..." she mumbled, sounding out the translated code.

At once, the ship fell back into silence. Hat Kid looked up from her book and tilted her head, curious as to why it had stopped tapping.

Tap tap.

Ah. So she was correct, then. Hat Kid slowly approached the rag alien with renewed interest. She plopped herself back down in front of it and looked at its strange (and slightly creepy) face. Now that they had a better way of speaking to each other, going beyond just "yes" and "no", she was interested in getting to know a bit more about her house guest, starting with:

"What is your name?"

An awkward silence followed, and Hat Kid noted that whatever this alien was, it sure liked to take time responding to its questions. Then, it started tapping the wooden block underneath the covers, spelling out one letter after another, and Hat Kid struggled for a bit to keep up with it.

M-O-O-N-J-U-M-P-E-R. That was its name, and that was what she would call it from then on.

* * *

Welp. Time to disappear for the next few months. The next time I update this will probably be in January. Depends on if I can check everything off my holiday bucket list by then.


	4. Messy Introductions

I think I said something about not updating this until January. Well I lied.

Though I managed to get this out mostly because I wrote this one small piece at a time while I writing the other thing.

* * *

Ding.

Hat Kid opened the oven, and a gust of warm air rushed outside to wrap around her in a cozy embrace. She quickly pulled out a sheet from inside, and placed it on top of the counter, taking a moment to examine the finished product.

Hat Kid's travel computer told her that the trip back to Earth would take three hours, so it only made sense for her to bake a cherry tart for every hour she spent out in space. Unfortunately for her, one of the tarts decided that it didn't want to bake properly, and had ended up as a pile of ugly black mush. She decided that such bad behavior would not be tolerated on her ship, so she carefully removed the offending tart from the sheet with a spatula, and put it in the microwave. With a few quick pushes, she put down three minutes in the microwave timer, giving it enough time to think about how bad it had been, before she turned back and left the kitchen with the rest of the tarts in hand.

She burst into the main room so loudly, the entire galaxy probably heard the doors swing open. The rag thing-sorry, Moonjumper, certainly didn't miss it; as soon as she entered, its eyes snapped onto her. Returning its gaze, Hat Kid gave it a big grin and waved. Much to her surprise, it waved back.

She was so surprised, she almost missed Moonjumper pointing to the tray of tarts in her hand. When she finally did seem to notice, Moonjumper started tapping out a message.

W-H-A-T-I-S-T-H-A-T

t? Wha tisth at? Whati sthat? Was this some kind of ancient diale- wait, no, it was just asking what she was holding in her hands.

Hat Kid debated whether she should offer a tart to the strange alien. Eventually, she decided that her sweet tooth probably wasn't as important as making her guest feel comfortable. Making new friends was always fun, and it wasn't like she couldn't make more, right? It's not like it would take the rest of the trip to bake more tarts? (She would have to double-check with her recipe book later. She'd already forgotten how long she had taken to bake her tarts)

Careful not to stumble and ruin her carpet, Hat Kid slowly climbed down the ladder. She dashed over to Moonjumper and presented him with her plate of tarts. It just gave her a blank stare, and Hat Kid remembered that it had asked what the tarts were, not if it could have one. Not that she would take back her offer.

Hat Kid placed a tart in Moonjumper's hands. She scarfed down the other tart in front of it, smudging her lips with cherry guts, before she gave Moonjumper an expectant look.

Moonjumper glanced down at the tart in its hands, carefully examining it with curious eyes. It seemed to be hesitant about eating the tart, like it had to examine every dumb crack in the crust or every glob of jelly that wasn't even that great, and eventually, Hat Kid began to grow irritated with her 'ungrateful' guest. After what was probably a hundred years, Moonjumper finally brought the tart to its face. The pastry inched closer to its mouth, and Hat Kid found herself sitting on the edge of her seat... and then Moonjumper smashed the tart into its face.

Hat Kid instantly deadpanned at the sight of Moonjumper's face covered in sticky jelly. They just sat there, doing nothing as the jelly slowly dripped down. Only when the jelly had begun to slip did Hat Kid realize the danger her carpet was in. She quickly slid her tray underneath the falling jelly, and dashed back into the kitchen for something to clean up the mess.

Hat Kid scrambled through the kitchen, peeking inside cupboards and yanking open drawers. When she found the napkins, she gathered as much as she could in her small arms, and scrambled back outside, leaving a trail of flying napkins behind.

When Hat Kid got back, she had begun to see splotches of greyish blue shine through the tumbling jelly. That didn't matter now. She wiped away the jelly with way more napkins than what was probably necessary, until the glossy red splotches on its face shone in the soft light from her ship.

As Hat Kid finished her clean-up, she noticed two things: the first was that now, Moonjumper's face was more red than it was blue. The second was that it was shivering again.

* * *

Moonjumper never realized how heavy his body really was until he had to hold himself up with only one of his arms. Either that, or he was just really weak. (It was probably the latter)

The thing warming his blanket had stopped working. Moonjumper couldn't recall doing anything differently for the past hour, so he didn't think he could have done something to turn it off. Whatever the case might have been, when the thing turned off, it was as if a dam of cold air had been broken. Ice seemed to blast against him on all sides, and the fear of the bitter cold, of being left alone and adrift came rushing back like a train to the face, leaving him frozen, unable to move.

Overwhelmed, panicking, he tried to move, but his arms refused to budge. Tendrils of bitter cold fear clawed at his form, slithering in and out through his empty shell of a body, through his hollow eye sockets. The chains wrapped around his wrists seemed to snake up his arms, clasping at his limbs, trying to pull him back under the unfeeling gaze of a thousand stars.

"Hey. Hey. Hey!"

The warm, cheery voice of the girl sent Moonjumper hurtling back into the present, like a rubber band snapping back in place. Through the sharp, icy breeze, he felt a surge course through him, and his arms finally crumbled.

When he finally came to his senses, he saw the worried gaze of the small girl cast down on him. He tried to pull him up, but his shaky arms could not hold him for long, and he crashed back down onto the floor. So he just lay there. Cold. Tired. But not alone.

A small source of warmth slid under his blanket; most would have missed it, since the warmth it provided was so subtle, so insignificant, but Moonjumper, who had spent such a long time starved of any heat, never missed even the slightest change. Then, the warmth was gone as soon as it had appeared.

Moonjumper would have tried to reach out for it, but he just felt too drained. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the girl rise off the ground, a strange hourglass in her tiny hands. He watched as she shook it vigorously, and the hourglass thing lit up like a lamp left in the attic for too long. She disappeared, and Moonjumper felt something warmer slid under the blanket.

It started with a tiny prick. Then, it grew, it blossomed into a flower of warmth, spreading around the blanket underneath. Slowly but surely, the sharp daggers of cold sawing across his shell of a body were forced back, before they disappeared entirely, and Moonjumper's shivering finally came to a stop.


	5. Ghost Bork

For those who may not know, there's a section on the chapter "Murder on the Owl Express" where you have to save your "pet". The song that plays during that is called "Meta Bork", and this chapter's title, Ghost Bork, is a reference to that.

The only things I own are Hat Kid's cherry tarts, and the two "video games" mentioned here.

* * *

The sound of barking caught Moonjumper's attention and the first thought that entered his head was: the girl had a dog on the ship? Slowly, he lifted himself off the ground and craned his neck to the source of the sound. Off to the side, he saw the girl sitting at some sort of box thing, watching a bunch of tiny pixelated figures bounce around a screen. Curiosity took its hold, and he dragged himself over bristles of fabric with his frail arms.

The girl looked over his shoulder as he lifted his face off the ground, and noticing his struggle, she put something back down onto the plush carpet and ran over to help. Taking him in her arms, the girl hauled him closer to the box-shaped device, and he saw that the device was a small television. The words "Dog-gone it!" flashed on the screen, and a tiny dog hopped over small rivers and cacti on the two-dimensional desert floor below it. From this, Moonjumper guessed the girl had been playing a video game. He could faintly recall having a few video games when he was human, but he didn't think they got taken off their shelf often. The princess was more of a book person anyway.

Moonjumper leaned into the screen to get a closer look, but the girl pushed him away, lightly tapping him on the nose, as if he were a misbehaving child. Then she shoved a small controller in his hands and waved her arms. Moonjumper looked at her with a confused expression. After a while, the girl seemed to give up and pressed a button on the controller. The words on the screen disappeared, and the ground below the dog started to move.

It took a moment for Moonjumper to react. By the time he realized what was happening, a cactus slammed into the dog on the screen, and the words "You Died!" popped up on the screen. He drooped his head in disappointment, but he felt a light pat on his back. Moonjumper looked over his shoulder and saw the girl smiling back, her gaze encouraging him, pushing him to continue forward.

Straightening himself, Moonjumper pressed the button on the controller, determined to try again. This time, his attempt did not end in an untimely demise. He was able to get the dog to leap over one cactus, and then another, before his finger slipped and the dog was sent to a watery grave.

Moonjumper caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to see the girl picking up a second controller as she moved to sit down next to him. She flashed him a smug grin that only said, "You're going down," which Moonjumper returned with a competitive glare. The girl pushed down on a button on her controller, and a second dog appeared on the screen. Moonjumper pulled his controller closer and wove his fingers back onto the controller. He wasn't planning on going down without a fight.

* * *

Hat Kid had to admit, Moonjumper was pretty good at the game. Well, it wasn't that hard of a game, and he hadn't won yet, but he was coming close. At least that would have forgiven him for committing the egregious sin that was not having played this game before. (Mind you, she hadn't gotten a confession out of him, but from the way he acted so guilty and unsure around this video game were glaring hints that screamed something like this)

A very loud and very annoying beeping started coming from the console at the front of the ship, disrupting Hat Kid just before she could start another game. With an exasperated sigh, she put down the controller. Just as she got up, she gave Moonjumper an apologetic glance before she ran back over to the console.

A bunch of fancy screens greeted her as Hat Kid returned to her seat at the helm. She quickly swept her eyes over lines of confusing green letters, finally stopping at a big line of text reading: "Fun things you need to know right now" (Written in a font that looked a lot like scribbled crayon. The text had just read "Alerts" before, but she thought that was boring, so she added her own personal touch.)

Hat Kid tapped the screen, and the text disappeared, before being replaced by a bunch of smaller words.

The line at the top politely notified her that her destination was just two and a half hour away. The second said: "Also your tarts are burning, dummy. }:)" The first thought that crossed her mind was to thwack the computer for insulting her. Then, she realized what it was saying. With a panicked yelp, she dashed back into the kitchen, and to her relief, she didn't find it completely consumed by fire.

Turns out, the computer had over-exaggerated a tiny bit. Only one of the tarts had caught on fire, and even there, it was so small she had to look really closely to find it. One bop on the head and a burnt finger later, Hat Kid was able to bring the tray of tarts out of the oven and put them on top of the counter for later. (She doubted Moonjumper would give them the friendliest reception after his last encounter with them.)

Hat Kid returned to find the (not intentionally) well-hidden cabinet wide open, and Moonjumper investigating her stache (though a more appropriate word for it now would be pile) of video games and movies laid out on the pink and purple carpet. (Hat Kid made a note to repaint that cabinet later so it could stand out a bit more. She was always forgetting it was even there) When Moonjumper saw her return, it gave her a guilty look. Hat Kid flashed an encouraging smile.

Hat Kid leapt down and ran over to the TV. She quickly dug around the pile of assorted boxes, until she pulled out a box with the words "Cat-astrophe! (oh no)" written out in big, flashy letters. With the push of a button, she ejected the video game already in the TV, before she replaced it with the disk in her hand.

As the sound of intense mewing took to the air, Hat Kid made herself snug and comfy in a puffy pillow in front of the TV, and she picked up a controller lying idle on the ground. She looked over her shoulder and found Moonjumper standing there, staring down at the folded wrinkles at the base of his fluffy red blanket awkwardly. She beckoned him closer with a wave of her tiny hand, before she patted down a spot next to her on the floor.

Moonjumper shuffled over to sit down beside Hat Kid, making sure to keep its blanket with it. The blanket swept over the carpet around them, scrambling around as Moonjumper stretched over to pick up his controller. The velvety blanket lying next to Hat Kid caught her eye; the softness and fuzziness tempting her, calling her to snuggle it its warm embrace. Of course, she gave in, and she pulled half of the blanket over herself, much to the surprise of Moonjumper.

The warm glow the time piece under the blanket was giving off spread quickly under the covers, and Hat Kid squirmed around to make herself more comfortable. Something shifted beside her, and she glanced up to see Moonjumper move closer to her. As its robes brushed against her side, the title popped up on screen with a blip. The two turned their attention back to the game, holding their controllers closer to themselves, and Hat Kid steeled her resolve for a second match.


	6. Contracted Reminders

So I finally got around to updating this.

Nothing else to really say here other than to read the dang thing and enjoy reading the dang thing.

* * *

The bad tart had somehow gotten worse in its time in the microwave. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was traveling in space right now. Usually, she baked her snacks before she took off, but she had left in such a hurry she had forgotten to do it. Or maybe it had something to do with those weird buttons she had pressed after putting it in, just for the heck of it.

Either way, the ugly pile of mush had been transformed into an uglier crisp that also smelled. And by smelled, she really meant it smelled. If someone were to take it halfway across the galaxy and bury it deep within some uncharted planet in a place no one would ever find it, Hat Kid guessed that she'd still be able to catch a whiff of that horrible HORRIBLE stench.

So she blew it up.

Okay, maybe "blow up" wasn't the best word for it. Heck, she hadn't meant to do it, and she couldn't remember how she had done it, but at least the smell was gone. Along with her microwave.

As Hat Kid tried to think of a way of getting another microwave without being prodded for why, she heard a suspicious noise come from downstairs. She stuck her head out the door and found the central room empty. As she scanned the room for her guest, her eyes fell on the sandwich(?) cushion, and she found the top layer ever so slightly off. Without a second of hesitation, she jumped down and pushed it back to its proper place. She stepped back to admire her handiwork when she noticed a thin trail in the carpet. When she followed it, she found herself at her bedroom door.

Hat Kid crept through the hallway, curious to see why Moonjumper had left so suddenly. She peeked inside, and found it sitting in a ragged pile of blankets and pillows on the floor, staring at an assortment of dolls that had spilled out on the floor. When she entered, Moonjumper's head turned toward her and gave her a blank stare. Hat Kid sat down across from it, and returned its gaze. They stayed there for the longest time, staring dumbly at each other, and Hat Kid wondered what Moonjumper could be up to.

As they sat there, a doll popped out of the pile. Moonjumper toppled back in surprise, and Hat Kid couldn't help but giggle at its clumsiness. As Moonjumper shook itself out of its daze, it found itself staring at a miniature version of the Snatcher.

"Hi! I'm the Snatcher!" it said in a weirdly girlish voice. "I'm a big, dumb jerk, and I hate BFFs."

It took a moment for Moonjumper to see the small fingers wrapped around the "Snatcher". As it slowly rose back up, it saw Hat Kid holding out the Snatcher doll, and it gave her a sheepish smile. Seeing his smile of approval, Hat Kid continued to pester him.

"Hey, wanna sign a contract, kiddie?" she said in her deep-voiced imitation of the Snatcher. "Wanna sort my bookshelf? Wanna clean my toilet? Wanna rub my feet?"

Moonjumper collapsed onto the floor again. From the constant shaking she could see from the blanket, Hat Kid guessed it was laughing, and she smiled. After a few seconds, Moonjumper rose up again, shaking itself out of its laughing fit. It disappeared under its covers, and Hat Kid, curious to see where this was going, sat down next to her pile of dolls. A minute went by when it finally re-emerged from the depths wearing... her hat.

Hat Kid gave Moonjumper an unamused look, and it returned her glare with a sheepish smile. It struck a "heroic pose", before it fell into the pile before it, splashing dolls all over an unprepared Hat Kid. As toys splattered against her, she let out a squeak and batted her hands against the torrent of dolls. As the storm settled down, all that remained was a tangle of fabric and limbs, and the pair caught in the mess filled the air with childish laughter.

An alarm blared through the ship, silencing their laughter in a heartbeat. Hat Kid's smile changed to a panicked expression, and she dashed out of the room, leaving a confused Moonjumper behind in the pile of toys and cushions.

* * *

The girl had abandoned him. She had left him alone. Alone and in the cold, and one might think he'd have gotten used to being alone and in the cold after being left by himself in the freezing clutches of space, but even now the prospect of being left behind again terrified him just as it had when he was sent to the Moon the first time and now that icy cold feeling came rushing back and he was terrified and-

No, the girl hadn't left him. She had just moved to another room. She just had to deal with something else for a moment. That was all. Right? Surely she wasn't cruel enough to bring his hopes up, before squashing them mercilessly by leaving him to his own demons. Besides, she couldn't have known how terrified he was of himself. His lips were frozen in place, so even if he had wanted to tell her, it would have been impossible.

Slowly but surely, Moonjumper pulled himself together again. His panic began to reside, and he was left wondering why the girl had left him all alone. Maybe she never really liked him. Maybe she was going to abandon him.

Or maybe she just had something she needed to check up on. Yes, that was probably it. She didn't seem like a horrible person. Then again, _she_ hadn't seemed like a horrible person either, and he paid the price for getting too close.

Moonjumper managed to drag himself out of the pile of fabric and cloth, and steadily rose off the ground. He had resolved to find the girl, just in case she was planning on leaving him behind. He snuck down the hall, dragging his blanket behind him, his eyes flickering around, wary for any nasty surprises.

When Moonjumper opened the door to the hub room, he immediately wished he hadn't. Almost as if by a twist of fate, the very same coldness of space started dragging him back out, as if it were begging him to return to its lonely embrace. He clutched on to the side, his mask a display of terror as he desperately attempted to resist the vacuum through its persistent effort to haul him kicking and screaming into the endless abyss.

It was happening again it was happening again. He regretted every terrible thing he had ever done. His head echoed with screams of apologies to all the people he had wronged, even though the would never hear his words. He just didn't want to be out there again, all alone in the cold.

And then, Moonjumper saw a soft blue light out of the corner of his eye. Slowly bringing his fractured senses back together, he pushed himself out a bit farther to see what was going on, and he caught a glimpse of the girl with the hat, holding one of the hourglass things in her hands. He watched in awe as a soft cascade of blue light swept out of the hourglass, and gently wrapped itself around the pieces of debris out in space. Then, the light reeled in the wreckage, sealing the gaping hole in the wall that he had failed to notice before until every last crack vanished from sight, as if it had never been there, all while he just stood there, dumbfounded.

It took less than a second for Moonjumper to put two and two together. His eyes drifted down to the hourglass he clutched tightly to himself beneath the covers, and an idea wormed its way into his head. If it could undo a hole blown into the side of a spaceship, then maybe it could give him back his humanity. Maybe it could let him stop worrying so much about the cold constantly gnawing away at him. And maybe it could finally give him a chance to tell everyone he was sorry.

Surely she wouldn't mind if only one of her hourglass things went missing?


	7. The Hat Chest

So I just found out that the room with the Battle of the Birds telescope is called the Machine Room, when I've been calling it the Engine Room in this story, so I went back to the first two chapters and cleared everything up. That's all I really have to say here.

* * *

The Moonjumper seemed a lot more energetic than he was at the beginning of the trip. Hat Kid assumed it had something to do with the tarts, and she made a mental note to give any sleepy visitors on her ship more sugar.

At the moment, Hat Kid was busy sorting through her attic when she came across a wooden chest. Curious to see what was inside, she flung it open, and inside, she found a bunch of weird little hats.

Hats of all shapes and sizes, brimming with all kinds of colors. There were hats that looked weird and crazy in unique and wacky ways, and hats that were... well... just plain and boring. Some had a billion extra things sprouting out of them, while others were just a flat, hollow thing of fabric. She was sure she had even spotted a hat that just looked like a potato.

Hat Kid pulled out each hat back into the open, one by one, carefully inspecting each one as if she was trying to remember what exactly had she been thinking when she had made them, and why would she have kept them up here instead of proudly wearing them on her head. After a few minutes of digging, she was finally able to bring all of the hats out into the open and as she swept her eyes over the humongous pile of hats looming over her, she felt as if she were reliving her first days of making hats. And she saw why she had decided to keep all of these hats hidden away in the attic, because, simply put, a lot of them were about as ugly as a bag of rocks. (Then again, a bag of rocks taste pretty bad compared to potatoes) This presented a problem to her, however, because as much as she wanted to just hurl them all back in the chest without a second thought, there might be a few hidden gems in the pile, and she didn't want to risk throwing them out as well. She could just go through the pile and take a good, long look at each and every one of those hats by herself, but that would take waaaaay more time than she was willing to spend.

Then she remembered she wasn't by herself.

Hat Kid scampered over to the lift leading out of the attic, and she slowly lowered herself back into the hub. As the main room came into view, Hat Kid saw the Moonjumper's head snap up from whatever it was looking at before. It watched her with interest as she jumped down to the first floor, shuffling beneath the covers as she came closer. (It was almost like it was hiding something... Then again, what was there for it to hide?)

The curious look on Moonjumper's face turned to surprise as Hat Kid grabbed its hand and dragged it up the stairs, the blanket wrapped around its body fluttering in the wind. She plopped it down awkwardly on the lift, and as she brought them back up to the attic, she gave it a cheerful smile, making Moonjumper very curious to see what exactly she needed to show it.

Eventually, the lift came back to a halt on the attic, and when Moonjumper saw the pile of assorted hats on the floor, it looked confused. Seeing its confusion, Hat Kid scrambled over to the pile of hats. She plucked one out of the pile and gave it an exaggerated, lengthy inspection of the "hat" before tossing it into the chest beside her. Moonjumper's face seemed to light up as it realized she wanted it to help her separate the good hats from the bad hats, and it wordlessly dragged itself over to her. Hat Kid cheered as it settled in beside her, glad to have a friend lend a helping hand to her, and jumped back into the pile with renewed vigor.

Not even a full minute had passed before she came across a bit of a dilemma. Hat Kid managed to dig up a hat that seemed to confused her refined taste in hats (at least, in her opinion). She quietly stepped over to where Moonjumper had sunk itself into the pile of hats, and tapped its shoulder. It turned around, and its face immediately morphed into something that looked like horror. So another hat was thrown back into the chest.

Hat Kid turned to leave, when she felt a light tap on her shoulder in return. She looked over her shoulder and found the Moonjumper with a hat that appeared strikingly similar to the dinosaur hat she still kept around, save for the wings on the back and the googly eyes pasted on it. The second she saw it, she burst into a fit of giggles. Moonjumper seemed to take it the wrong way and dejectedly moved to put the hat back in the chest.

Hat Kid reached out and stopped it, taking the hat from its hands and putting it on herself before she spread out her arms as if to show Moonjumper what she had meant. Its expression lit up in understanding, and Hat Kid safely tucked the hat away in one of her coat pockets.

It didn't take long for Hat Kid to find another hat that put her taste to the test. Once again, she skipped over to Moonjumper and not-so-subtly asked its opinion on the potato hat. It replied bluntly that, unless she wanted to distract everyone she met with a hat as ridiculous as that, it would be in her best interest to throw it back in the chest. All without the use of any words, of course. (Okay, Moonjumper had never actually said anything. It just gave her a blank stare, before facepalming, so Hat Kid had to guess what it was trying to say)

This went on for a while, with one of them going over to the other, asking how they thought of the hat, maybe struck a little pose to give it a bit of flair, and then either throwing it back into the chest or putting it aside for later. They went back and forth between each other until the pile of hats had finally been cleared out.

As they were looking at the place on the floor where the massive pile of hats had once been, Hat Kid cheered, and she crushed her companion in a friendly hug. When she finally let it go, she dashed over to the chest and leapt on top of it, causing the lid to slam shut. She landed on the ground with an "oof", and as she slowly got to her feet, she found that Moonjumper had completely vanished.

Oh well. Moonjumper probably had something else to do.

Hat Kid emerged from the attic, aching to get up and go do something fun, like run around in a circle. She looked out the window, and too her joy, she found the big blue planet just outside her ship, telling her to come down and visit her friends. But first, she decided to check the time pieces, just to make sure she had enough to make the trip home. A quick tap on the screen next to the vault and a bunch of numbers popped up. She pushed aside a bunch of useless displays, and focused in on the fuel gauge. To her relief, she saw that the time pieces still on the ship just had enough power to get back. After she had used a time piece to make a hasty repair, she was worried that she wouldn't have enough energy to return home, but she was glad to be wrong. She just needed a bit more to be able to make the full trip, but she still had that one time piece she had given to Moonjumper, so that wasn't a problem. All she had to do was find it, and she set off to do just that.

The first place she checked was the engine room, but she didn't find anyone there. Her bedroom was equally as empty, and she doubted her guest would have liked to stay in the kitchen after her little accident had left microwave guts all over the room. This left the engine room.

As Hat Kid crossed the hub, she noticed something bright white had begun to creep into view. She screeched to a halt, and she looked out to see Earth's beautiful silvery moon had snuck to her window while she wasn't paying attention. She took a moment to admire how round and white and pretty it was, and for a moment she wished her own planet had a moon as cool as this one. Then she took off towards the machine room to continue her search.

Hat Kid entered the machine room, eyes peeled for anything a deeper hue of red, or pale blue, as those were the colors she expected to find attached to Moonjumper. She walked up to her oversized computer and pushed a few buttons on the keyboard. She didn't actually have any security cameras on her ship; she was too young for that kind of fancy equipment. That didn't stop her from pretending to search through footage on the computer, as she tried and failed to steal a few glances but not have it look like she was trying to peek.

A flash of movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She adjusted her position in front of the computer to try and catch whoever was behind her with a knowing smirk. Sure enough, she found a dark red heap in the corner of the room. Thinking it was another fun little game, she pretended to look away, as if she didn't notice anything suspicious, when she saw a familiar shade of light blue light emitting from underneath the covers. In an instant, she whirled around, coming face-to-face with Moonjumper, the time piece held tightly to its chest, and a look on its face that mirrored someone caught in the act of doing something very, very bad.


	8. Moonshine

They just stood there, frozen, unsure of what to do. The one second it took for what was going on to sink in felt stretched to an hour, as the world came to a thundering stop. Then reality came hurtling back to the present, and it hit them like a biting gale of frost, sending them reeling in shock.

* * *

Hat Kid, always the first to act, took a step forward, hand outstretched in a silent offer for help. She opened her mouth to speak, but Moonjumper disappeared in a swirl of dark red before the first word could even take form in her mouth.

Without a second thought, Hat Kid took off after him. Before the doors leading into the hallway could fully close, she was upon them, and they snapped open in an instant. She ran through the hall, the striped pattern on the floor becoming a blur under her feet as she sprinted forward.

Then, she was blinded in a hazy screen of red as a formless blob of fabric and velvet leapt out of the shadows, and tackled her to the ground.

* * *

The moment Moonjumper heard the doors slide open, he knew it wouldn't be long before she caught him. The element of surprise could only get him so far, and while the girl had about a few years' worth of experience running around on those little legs of hers, Moonjumper was just getting used to having control over his limbs again.

The soft tapping of tiny feet against the floor reached Moonjumper's ears, only growing louder and louder as he tried his best to stay ahead. So he flung out the red blanket wrapped snugly around him in hopes of catching the girl off guard. From the surprised squeak he heard a few seconds later, he guessed that he had hit his mark, but now he had a new problem on his hands.

The moment his covers flew off of his pale skin, the cold came rushing back, crashing over Moonjumper like a torrent of ice. He stumbled, but quickly regained his footing, and burst out the door.

As Moonjumper slowly crawled out into the main room, he began to feel strength and warmth slowly seep back into his fragile body. At first, he dismissed it as the magic of the dust from inside that hourglass thing taking effect. Then, something deathly pale flashed out in the corner of his eye. He cast his gaze out the window, and that's when he saw the moon looming over him from behind the glass, a hulking figure contrasting the black empty space around it.

It was then that the magic dust he had sprinkled on himself finally kicked in, piecing together the broken pieces of his mind and soul. And as the fog he didn't even realize was there began to clear away, a single thought entered his mind.

And it terrified him.

Only now did he notice how he hadn't been able to as much as move a finger when he first regained consciousness. Only now did he notice how it had taken time for him to regain control over his own body as he came closer and closer to where his soul had been anchored all this time.

And now he was here, back on the moon, his place of exile and isolation.

In his moment of panic, another thought wormed its way into his mind; she had known all along. She had known all along that the last place in the galaxy he'd ever want to return to was here. She wanted to bring him back, to abandon him on that white, floating piece of rock, and leave him in the cold, all alone. She wanted to see him suffer.

All those times she had been friendly with him? They were all lies. Lies, every single one of them. Lies, lies, lies.

Somewhere in the back of his consciousness, a small voice from an unbroken piece of his mind spoke out against the storm, asking him to calm down, telling him that this was all a mistake, that maybe she really did want to help him. But that small voice was snuffed out the instant he head doors open behind him. As he turned to face the girl, any sense of reason he might have had was replaced with an animalistic sense of fear.

* * *

The time piece seemed to glow brighter in the silver light of the moon, and beams of moonlight cast deep shadows into the carpet. As Hat Kid pushed the doors aside, she locked eyes with Moonjumper. As she stared into those dark, empty eye-holes in its mask, she tried to decipher what exactly was going on in its mind, but all she got in return was a blank stare.

It bolted the second he saw her, but Hat Kid was prepared. The brewing hat already perched on her head, she hurled a potion at the nearest door, and the moment it shattered apart, it blossomed into a flower of ice.

Moonjumper tried to run towards the other door but found it blocked as another sheet of ice burst out of the ground. With no way out, it turned to face Hat Kid, hunched low in fear. It was trapped. And like a cornered animal, in a desperate attempt to escape, it lunged.

* * *

He was not going to go back there.

Moonjumper had spent several long and lonely decades on that forsaken space rock. He wasn't going to survive several decades of maddening isolation, of torment, of the cold out there in space.

So he clawed and flailed at the girl who had taken him in. Who had shown him kindness, only to bring him back to that place of suffering.

A streak of blue came at the side of his face. Turns out the girl was surprisingly strong for someone her size.

* * *

Hat Kid watched as Moonjumper tumbled to the side. She winced as it hit the exit to her ship with a thud, and she slowly lowered her umbrella. As Moonjumper got to its feet, a brief sadness passed through her eyes. Then it lunged at her again, and she wondered what could have driven it to this desperation.

* * *

Moonjumper had thrown his already crippled rational thinking out the window as he tore across the room. He had no idea what he was even doing; he just knew that he had to do something, anything to keep him away from the moon.

The girl stepped out of Moonjumper's path as he flew through the air, causing him to slide on top of the carpet. He quickly scrambled to his feet, and tried again. This time, the girl ducked under him, and with the flick of her umbrella, she tore the hourglass out from his grasp.

* * *

With the time piece out of the way, Hat Kid turned her attention back to Moonjumper. She could see its eyes snap to the time piece lying off to the side, and she already knew that it would go for the time piece first. But she had a plan.

First, she would have to get Moonjumper into another room and separate it from the time piece. Once she had it contained, she would go to Earth to see if any of her friends had anything to say about her guest.

Then she remembered she had sealed off all the other rooms. So much for that idea.

* * *

Moonjumper found the hourglass thing knocked away the moment he tried to grab for it. When he realized his arms were empty, he attempted to reach for it again, only to be stopped by a tug on his leg. His eyes snapped down, and to his horror, he found it encapsulated in biting cold.

He struggled, and he trashed against the hold of the ice that had blossomed around his feet, and with a crash, Moonjumper broke loose, scattering shards into the air. The girl seemed surprised that he had managed to free himself, and in that moment of hesitation, he stumbled towards the hourglass thing, glistening a silvery shade of blue in the bright moonlight.

* * *

Moonjumper shouldn't have been able to break through her ice potions that easily. But it had broken away regardless. And now it was going to the time piece.

Hat Kid swung her umbrella in the time piece's direction, and a chain shot out of the top. The hook at the end closed around the time piece with a snap and reeled it back in.

Then Moonjumper's leg snagged the chain. The hook at the end clicked open, and the time piece tumbled off to the side. Moonjumper, on the other hand, was sent crashing into the big window at the end of the ship.

* * *

Moonjumper was the first to hear it: a quiet, subtle popping noise, barely above a whisper. In a moment of panic, he scrambled as far from the wall as he could go. From wavering the look he saw on the girl's face, he knew she heard it too.

Then, cracks began to form, creeping around the glass door like a thin, jagged vine. They could only watch as the door slowly gave away under the broken glass, until it finally shattered with a deceptively quiet click.

* * *

Chaos quickly erupted in the spaceship the moment the door came loose. Anything light that wasn't strapped down was instantly sucked out into space. Cushions and... well, it was really only the cushions in the room that were ejected from the spaceship. Everyone else held on to dear life.

As Hat Kid struggled to hold on to the ladder, she caught sight of the time piece, pressed against the window. She also noticed that it was slowly rolling towards the opening in the ship. Careful not to lose her balance, she let go of the ladder and took a step closer to the time piece. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Moonjumper, clutching tightly to the sandwich shaped cushion. Even though she had strapped down the cushion, Hat Kid didn't think it would stay that way for long; she could see the threads holding it together coming apart from under the pressure. It wouldn't be much longer before it was finally torn apart.

She only had time to rescue her friend, or take the time piece.

* * *

Moonjumper couldn't really say he was disappointed when he saw the girl dive for the hourglass thing. He would have done the same if he were in her place.

Then the burger cushion came apart with a dusty rip.

Moonjumper clawed at the ground, but couldn't touch as much as a single thread on the carpeted floor. As he was sucked out into space, he looked back at the girl. Beneath her innocent gaze, he could see conflicting emotions swirling in her mind.

The moon inched ever so closer, and as the rest of his body slipped into the cold embrace of the darkness, the feeling in his lungs returned. A gasp escaped his lips, and for the first time in decades, Moonjumper could speak.

He opened his mouth, but no words could come out. He could have said anything: A scream for help, a cry for vengeance. Instead, he parted to the void in silence, under the silver shine of the moon.

And everything became cold.

So.

Very.

cold.


End file.
